Your Next Best Hire Could Be a Veteran

Many pest control companies have made strides to support government initiatives that connect transitioning service members and veterans with career opportunities.

In fact, pest control is a natural fit for many returning military veterans. A dedication to protecting and defending our nation translates well to helping homeowners regain the safety and comfort of their homes. Veterans are often disciplined team players who work well within a team and happily take on responsibility and leadership roles.

If you’re serious about recruiting, hiring, and retaining veterans on your team, there are small steps you can take at each step in the recruitment process to raise awareness of opportunity and make your company more attractive to former military job seekers.

Update Job Posts to Appeal to Veterans Skills

Veterans are some of the most skilled, hardest working members of the US workforce; however, they sometimes face unique challenges in transitioning their military skills to civilian careers.

Whether candidates were involved in humanitarian, security, diplomatic, or combat missions, much of their experience was on-the-job and performed in high pressure situations. To take the next step, bridge the gap between a candidate’s military background and your company's hiring needs by adding related skills that target those experiences, like:

Logistics and inventory management

Following security and safety protocol

Working as a team to conduct training

Leading, building, and creating solutions

Talk about Company Culture

According to the Veterans Talent Index, “90% of veterans say finding a veteran-friendly company is critical in their job search.”

When veterans are considering jobs, they often look to the “why” of the company above the “what.” Military service is very mission-focused, so veterans are more likely to be drawn to companies whose values, beliefs, and goals align with theirs. In fact, focusing on the purpose of the job - not just the hard skills involved - helps you attract better candidates across the board.

If you’re serious about creating opportunities for veterans at your company, consider mentioning that explicitly in your job postings. Orkin even has a whole page highlighting their commitment to hire 1,000 veterans.

But keep in mind - it’s more than just talking the talk. Take advantage of social media and your careers page to showcase examples of your company’s involvement in the community. Volunteer work, charity, or other activities that display ways your business supports the military community can make a big difference in helping veteran applicants picture themselves working for you.

Promote Listings Where Vets are Looking

Deciding to pursue veterans for open positions is the first step - the second is to make sure your posts are visible where veterans are looking.

Platforms like Indeed, LinkedIn, and ZipRecruiter get a lot of traffic, but don’t forget about job boards that target military vets, like:

Google offers veteran-owned businesses the opportunity to pin a “Veteran-led” attribute to their Google My Business profile, but they’ve also made it easier for veterans to search for jobs on their platform. When veterans search “jobs for veterans” along with their MOS military job codes, Google’s search results will display relevant job openings.

Don’t Drop the Ball on Onboarding

Military service offers some of the most sophisticated training and leadership experience available. How does your training stack up?

If your employee onboarding could use a refresh, there are a number of resources and exams in the Forgely community to get you started. From pesticide safety and product label quizzes to Quality-Pro practice exams, we've got the basics covered so you don’t have to start from scratch.

Every new employee needs support, but veterans in particular thrive when given clear performance goals, policies, and expectations. Forgely also makes it easy to assign trainings, schedule reviews and inspections, and hold employees accountable for measuring performance – so your best hires become your best long-term employees.

Partner with Advocacy Groups

Veterans can be an asset to your team, but the transition back to civilian life isn’t without its challenges. Hiring and training military veterans for jobs in pest control requires you to provide ongoing support for employees and an inclusive workplace.

Whether you’re looking to expand the number of veterans on your team or actively pursuing former military candidates for the first time - creating opportunities for military veterans at your pest control company can be rewarding and beneficial to your bottom line.